This whole grind thing, i personally don't think he expected everyone to want to just sit and race against AI lol. In today's day and age he wanted to go down the online route and i believe A-Spec is just a filler till all the online features mentioned in the past get implemented.
I can see people being attached to the old GT series and way of doing things, but do you really want another 400 races against what people refer to " as the worst ai imaginable" ..
If the AI is sooooo bad, why do people want more races against them.. Makes me laugh anyways.
They may be bad, but at least they don't deliberately decide to ruin a race for you.
Maybe Kaz thinks that everyone in the world has a Friends list as long as your arm, worldwide (so you can get a race at any time of the day or night) and they ALL race exactly the car and track YOU want to race (at the hp/kg you want to race) and are all good clean drivers. That certainly ain't me! I have a hectic and unpredictable schedule, and don't really have time to cultivate a collection of Friends that I trust to race clean, and who want the same tracks and cars I do (or are happy with Shuffle Mode), and have the same unpredictable schedule.
So, two things are important to me. First, that online, better matchmaking and Shuffle racing rules are implemented (Shuffle mode is a great idea, ruined by a decision to ONLY use it on POS daily drivers with Comfort Soft's, and cars that have been upgraded need a way to temporarily DROP the upgrades so that you can join ANY lobby), and then, if I CAN'T find a lobby with a decent connection, clean racers and a good variety of tracks and cars (most good lobbies tend to stick to just ONE car type), I have at least PLENTY of offline races to keep me busy until a good Online lobby opens up (I don't have all day to sit around by myself trying to get a paltry two or three others to join me for a race!).
If I want to race the AI, I can simply seed them 50hp or a 200kg, or slap lousy tires on.
Thing is, what made PD decide that they were WRONG on every other GT title? What made PD go 'Dropping 400 events from A-Spec ought to make this game SO MUCH better'...?
And, boys and girls, why is the abominable state of the AI a feature you are resigned to? Other racing games provide AI that are a challenge, that have personality (bang them around, they bang back, drive clean, they leave you alone, and they actually race each other as hard as they race you), why are we so resigned to such a game-ruining feature?
GT players are a strange breed. They will troll other racing game forums, and make fun of their physics, all the while ignoring the fact that the physics is the ONLY thing they can make fun of. The rest of their game is a very bad joke.